№ 3 - 2004
Zvonovsky V.B.
“Electoral Transit”: Towards Two Countries Distinguishable within the Boundaries of One?

Some particular features of past electoral campaigns in Russia are discussed in the article. What is especially noted is active usage of adminiatrative resource, its monopolization by the center. The author outlines characteristics of the electorate attracted by the new actor in the parliamentary field — the “Rodina” (“Motherland”) bloc. With electoral statistics covering the past decade analyzed, it is demonstrated in the conclusive part of the article that the citizens’ support of the power party and of the power as such, including the President, has been shifting from the center of the country to its outlying regions, to where dependence of the population on local elites is stronger, to where economically less self-sustained and politically more indifferent population is concentrated.